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Wednesday, January 27, 2016

It will be Rahim Khan from the Cong., Prakash Khandre from BJP for bypolls

Source: the Hindu :-

The major political parties seem to have finalised their candidates for the Bidar Assembly bypolls.

The former MLAs Rahim Khan of the Congress and Prakash Khandre of the BJP will file nomination papers for the bypolls on Wednesday.

Ayaz Khan, who quit the Congress to join the Janata Dal (Secular) on Monday, will be fielded by his new party. Vaijanath Madana, former District Health and Family Welfare Officer, has filed his nomination papers from the Bahujan Samaj Party.

The two Khans are related. Ayaz Khan, who runs the Noor group of institutions, is a nephew of Rahim Khan who runs the Roohi group of institutions.

Ayaz Khan was an office-bearer in the Minority Department of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee before joining the Janata Dal(S) in Bengaluru. He was also associated with the Bidar unit of the Bahujan Samaj Party for some time.

The former Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa and other leaders will be present when Prakash Khandre will file his nomination papers on Wednesday. The former president of the district unit of the BJP has represented Bhalki for two terms.

He defeated the Khandre brothers, his cousins and political rivals, in 1999 and 2004. Vijay Kumar Khandre, son of Bheemanna Khandre, former Minister and former president of Akhil Bharat Veerashaiva Mahasabha, lost his seat to Prakash Khandre in 1999.

Vijay Kumar Khandre’s brother Eshwar Khandre was defeated in 2004. In turn, Eshwar Khandre defeated Prakash Khandre in 2008. Prakash Khandre was relegated to the third spot in 2013, with Eshwar Khandre winning the polls.

Confident

Prakash Khandre says that he knows the territory well as a part of Bidar Assembly constituency was included in the Bhalki constituency before the delimitation of 2008.

The Bahujan Samaj Party has had considerable influence in Bidar. In 1994, Syed Zulfikar Hashmi was among the first BSP MLAs from South India. In 2008, Rahim Khan contested on BSP ticket only to lose to Gurupadappa Nagamarapalli of the Congress by around 3,000 votes.